The Example of the Food Assembly
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Field Actions Science Reports The journal of field actions Special Issue 16 | 2017 Smart Cities at the Crossroads Reinventing local food supply in connected cities: The example of The Food Assembly The Food Assembly team Electronic version URL: http://journals.openedition.org/factsreports/4330 ISSN: 1867-8521 Publisher Institut Veolia Printed version Date of publication: 1 June 2017 Number of pages: 44-49 ISSN: 1867-139X Electronic reference The Food Assembly team, « Reinventing local food supply in connected cities: The example of The Food Assembly », Field Actions Science Reports [Online], Special Issue 16 | 2017, Online since 01 June 2017, connection on 19 April 2019. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/factsreports/4330 Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License www.factsreports.org The Food Assembly (La Ruche Qui Dit Oui ! REINVENTING in French) is a social and collaborative enterprise created following a two-fold observation: crop and livestock farmers face LOCAL FOOD fi nancial diffi culties while end-consumers aspire to new modes of consumption. SUPPLY IN By leveraging new technology and a decentralized physical network, The Food Assembly aims to encourage the scale- CONNECTED CITIES: up of short food supply chains. So far, this initiative has met with considerable The example success, especially in cities. This article looks back at the key factors underpinning of The Food Assembly the success of this initiative and the way in which digital technology can lead to reinventing food supply in connected cities. By The Food Assembly team INTRODUCTION Over the past decade, conventional food distribution supply chains and modes of consumption have been increasingly called into question, especially in developed countries. On the one hand, crop and livestock farmers are now facing financial difficulties that undermine the viability of their activity. On the other, consumers aspire to new modes of consumption that are healthier, better for the environment and more transparent. This trend is all the more evident in cities with a high concentration of households with high purchasing power. This joint observations led to the creation in 2011 of The Food Assembly concept in France. Marc- David Choukroun (the current CEO), Guilhem Chéron, and Mounir Mahjoubi created The Food The Food Assembly Assembly with the aim of putting producers and Picking up of members’ orders consumers directly into contact with each other using new technology. The idea is to draw on the power of digital technology to develop short food supply chains (SFSCs) and to allow consumers to “eat better and shop fairly.” The Food Assembly platform makes it possible to create and manage a local and independent SFSC community, connected to a network of other SFSC communities. Seven “Assemblies” were created in 2011 as part of a pilot project in France. The following year, The Food Assembly was certified a Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) company. In 2013, KEYWORDS the initiative won the City of Paris’s Grand Prize for Innovation. Today, there are more than 850 • SHORT FOOD SUPPLY CHAINS in France – a third of which in urban areas – and • DIGITAL PLATFORM more than 300 in other countries (Italy, Belgium, • LOCAL CONSUMPTION • SOCIAL TIES United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland and Denmark). 44 A holistic approach to Smart Cities: articulating technology and citizen engagement www.factsreports.org 1. THE FOOD ASSEMBLY: AN ONLINE PLATFORM 2. IMPACT OF THE MODEL ON URBAN TO SCALE-UP SHORT SUPPLY CHAINS AREAS 1.1 DIGITAL INNOVATION AT THE HEART OF THE MODEL The aim of the model is to create bridges between rural producers and urban consumers through the The Food Assembly was created to enable the scale-up of SFSCs, use of digital technology. The impact of the model which are defi ned by the French Ministry of Agriculture as “a method on cities is environmental, social and economic. of selling agricultural products either directly by the producer to the consumer or by indirect selling providing there is only one REDUCING THE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT intermediary.” SFSCs have been created over the past few decades SFSCs aim to minimize the ecological footprint in France and elsewhere in the world by a range of stakeholders by encouraging production and consumption at (Teikeis in Japan, CSA - Community Supported Agriculture – in the the local level. While no product travelling further United States, Jardins de Cocagne and AMAPs in France, etc.), but than 250 km may be sold through an Assembly, they are often diffi cult to scale up. the average noted in France across the network To overcome these obstacles, The Food Assembly opted to leverage is 43 km. By comparison, the ingredients for an digital technology that can put tens of thousands of consumers industrial yoghurt travel 9,115 km before reaching and producers into contact with each other simultaneously. The the end consumer. company is now one of the leading stakeholders to have used new technology to create SFSCs. EMPOWERING ASSEMBLY HOSTS Managers of their Assemblies and organizers of The 850 Assemblies currently operating in France hold weekly the physical distribution of the products, 60% of markets where consumers come and meet the producers and collect Assembly Hosts are self-employed. At present, their food orders placed online. The SSE company is present via an for most Hosts, this is an additional activity that easy-to-use platform enabling consumers to join an Assembly free- provides them with the 8.35% of the sales made of-charge (close to their home or place of work, for example) and then through their Assembly, or an average of €500 per place weekly orders if they want without any particular obligation. All month. Around 80% of Hosts are women. They the products sold (fruit and vegetables, meat, dairy products, etc.) are generally share the aim of bringing about new produced near each Assembly, on average within 43 km, in France, modes of consumption and fi nd that this activity and a maximum radius of 250 km. The selling prices are set by the not only gives them additional monthly income but producers themselves. No purchase-resale system is implemented: for most of them it also provides a springboard for the consumer pays 100% of the price to the producers. One of the the creation of a new business activity. model’s advantages is the speed of the transaction: the producers receive payment within two to five working days. They then pay CONTRIBUTE TO SOCIAL TIES 8.35% of this amount to cover service costs to the “Food Assembly” enterprise (see box below), which supplies the digital tool and back- In addition to the sale and purchase of products, offi ce, and 8.35% to the Assembly Host who organizes the sale and the Assemblies often provide a means for reducing distribution of the products each week. isolation and encouraging contact between the rural and urban worlds. Many Assembly Hosts 1.2. DESIGNED FOR PERI- URBAN AREAS, arrange visits to producers’ farms. Recently, one THE PROJECT WORKS JUST AS WELL IN CITIES Association’s members helped a market gardener The model was initially designed for consumers in peri-urban areas plant 600 trees on his land. The distributions, held where communities have limited access to local shops. However, the in a physical locality, are also opportunities for Assembly model was quickly adopted by city-dwellers, especially in residents to meet each other as well as producers, large cities, who have expressed a strong desire for new modes of some of whom are present during distributions to consumption. For producers, cities provide a new outlet that can, deliver their products. in some cases, make up for the weaker demand in their local area. The Food Assembly model also allows for For example, many producers who sell their products in Paris come social ties to be created within neighborhoods from the regions located in the north of the city where there are and among network members. The Assembly fewer opportunities for direct selling. Supplying cities is a signifi cant Facebook groups allow members to send each source of income for producers. other messages (advice, share recipes, swap services, loan equipment, etc.). Outside the actual digital tool, many Assembly Hosts unite their community by organizing events. For example, “THE FOOD ASSEMBLY IS ONE OF one Parisian Assembly organizes a “Grande THE FIRST STAKEHOLDERS TO HAVE USED Marmuche” or “Big Assembly Meet” every NEW TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIAL NETWORKS quarter, which is attended by around one hundred TO SPEED UP THE DEVELOPMENT OF SHORT members who come together to cook and share FOOD SUPPLY CHAINS.” a meal. 45 www.factsreports.org The Food Assembly Example of a distribution point RECLAIM PUBLIC SPACE AND BREATHE NEW LIFE 3. KEY FACTORS UNDERPINNING SUCCESS: INTO SHOPPING AREAS Some distribution points are located in public A DECENTRALIZED MODEL ARTICULATING spaces like event centers or public spaces. Others A DIGITAL PLATFORM AND A DECENTRALIZED take place in cafes or restaurants bringing in additional customers in exchange for the provision PHYSICAL SPACE of free space for a few hours a week (people come The main factors underpinning the project’s success are: to collect their order and take something while there: a coffee, drink or even a meal). Recently, A DECENTRALIZED NETWORK WITH SEVERAL STAKEHOLDERS: The Food Assembly also formed a partnership The Food Assembly model places considerable emphasis on with SNCF-French Railways. Assemblies are held initiative and the entrepreneurial spirit of the Assembly Hosts. This in 35 stations today; the target is to double this makes The Food Assembly a decentralized, diverse and innovative number to around 70 by the end of 2017. This network. It relies on four stakeholders: partnership is part of an approach for users to THE ASSEMBLY HOSTS sit at the heart of The Food Assembly project.